Shadow
by Holly Chase
Summary: Nico three-shot. Up now: "I don't have 'low self-esteem'" I voiced my opinions loudly, a roar echoed down the passageway. Minos and I froze simultaneously. The ghost rotated on the spot fixing me with a withering glare that I was all too happy to return. "Well done, my Lord," he said sarcastically. "You've done a spectacular job of ruining our cover."
1. I Won't Forget

**_I won't forget:_**

My hearted thumped painfully in my chest. I wiped my damp cheeks with my recently acquired Camp Half-Blood top that I had been using as a make-shift pillow. I hated nightmares. I glanced around to check that I was the only person awake in cabin eleven. Normally during a bad dream I thrash around and scream; this time it looked as if I had been quiet enough to let the rest of the cabin members continue sleeping. I was relieved about this; the Stolls were convinced that by telling everyone your dream, the scarines-factor would vanish and I just could never bring myself to own up to my fear. Nightmares about monsters and drowning seemed much more believable and laughing about them afterwards pushed the sour tingle of dread to the corners of my mind where I no longer had to confront them; until I was expected to go back to sleep.

I stood, I had never experienced claustrophobia before, but this was what I imagined it felt like. Squashed between worries and dreads and laughing voices that sent chills down your spine like in horror movies (not that I'd _ever_ seen a horror movie at that point.) the feeling of suffocating under pressures that no human was meant to withstand. Or maybe it was drowning. Hydrophobia I _had_ experienced, several times through my life, in painful bursts of absolute panic as the water seemed to speak; _'Just you try it'_ the liquid would say. The only thing that would make me feel better about not even being able to have a bath past my navel was that Bianca was no better than I was. The one thing we used to agree on back in the hotel in Las Vegas was that water was bad.

I looked around the densely populated room, it was filled with people, sleeping in bunks, on the floor and one guy was even curled up on the top of the chest of drawers. My square of the floor was marked by a small wash bag, some blankets and my mythomagic cards plus the figurines. I scooped up my Ares statue and studied it in the dim light from one of the girls' torches. She had blond hair and was curled up in a tight ball around some hard-back book. I studied the bracelet she had strung on her wrist is said '_Jess' _across it. I briefly wondered how long she had been unclaimed for. My Ares figure was looking a lot meaner than it usually did, I wasn't sure if that was because I had met his kids a couple of days before. Introducing my head to a toilet wouldn't have been very nice anyway, but adding in the fact that looking at _pictures_ of the sea made me flinch, let's just say: it wasn't a very nice experience. Apparently the ring-leader isn't even at Camp at the moment; I'm really hoping that by the time she gets back I'll either be old news or have some really powerful parent to back me up.

Making for the Hermes cabin door at one in the morning is easier said than done. Just about everyone's legs block your way and stuff is just littered across the floor ready for you to step on. I lost my shoes about halfway across the cabin, between a guy so big, he was either a son of Ares or a mutation and I younger daughter of Hermes and since I wasn't about to start rummaging for them I just hopped over them and continued towards the door. I reached for the knob and hurtled myself out of the musty room into the cold night. There were no stars shining and the moon was a slit between wispy clouds. I thought that getting out of the room where I couldn't escape the dreams and the feeling of being smothered in fears would help. It didn't.

My nightmarish visions overwhelmed me as I stumbled through the long-ish grass covering the grounds. It was safe to say I was definitely not related to Demeter or Persephone; I didn't get along with plants. Bianca was running, Bianca was screaming, Bianca was dead. _It's not true, _I thought to myself stubbornly, _Percy said he'd protect her; he _promised_ he'd protect her._ But I just couldn't seem to convince whatever part of my brain sorted out my dreams of my sister's safety.

I tripped over a log, I hadn't even realised that I was still running; and stopped myself from swearing. Bianca didn't like swearing and I silently made a promise that I would do everything she'd ever told me to do, just because I knew I could and it would make her happy to know I _could_ follow instructions. I flopped down onto the earth; I liked the feel of the ground, and was about to lay back and not-go-to-sleep when I noticed that I was not alone. I was sitting by the camp fire that had been blazing earlier, as the Apollo kids lead us in several songs. Two children, a son of Demeter and a son of Athena had been claimed so strange plants were growing and the Athena kids were singing really loudly. Now the fire was smaller, the flames only flickering slightly. A small girl was tending to the flames. At first glance she didn't look much older than me but as she sat up I got a good look at her eyes and it felt like meeting Artemis all over again; because there was no way that a normal child (or demigod, whatever) could look as though she had seen so much.

"Hello," I said, shuffling through my booster pack of mythomagic monsters. Oh cool, a Drakon!

"Hello, Nico." She replied bending over the flames again to blow on some sparks that had almost gone out. "I don't suppose you know who I am." I looked at her performing a quick assessment: child-like, incredibly pretty, tending to flames. I reached into my pocket and pulled out another set of my mythomagic cards and began to flick through my Gods and Goddess deck, quickly ruling out any of the male figures and Artemis. I examined the names and powers closely until only two candidates were left.

"You're either; Bellona, Roman Goddess of torches, victory and protecting the homeland/war or Hestia, Greek Goddess of the Hearth." I proposed, praying that mythomagic hadn't forgotten any other Goddess that dealt with fire. Bellona/Hestia smiled and nodded, encouraged, I continued. "I seriously doubt that you're a Roman Goddess in a Greek Camp, so that makes you Hestia?"

"Bravo, Nico. It seems those mythomagic cards of yours are more useful than we Olympians care to admit." Hestia smiled at me, "I can't even begin to tell you how many times Dionysus has already contacted us at Mount Olympus to complain about how little attack points he has." I pulled out my Hestia figurine and looked at it.

"I don't think the artist ever actually met you." I pointed out showing her the card and statue. Hestia sighed:

"So many forget that I am the Goddess of protection as well as the hearth; I like to stay as a child because children, in general, pose no threats and are the kindest of mortals."

"I didn't know that," I said, making myself more comfortable on the soil.

Another strike of fear for Bianca hit me as a vision of Percy, Thalia, Grover and the huntress, Zoë appeared in front of my eyes. They were speaking quietly, Zoë was crying, which surprised me because I had never seen her look anything but annoyed in my direction. They were surrounded by some sort of shiny metallic stuff, it was scattered around them and as I looked around, I saw a sword skewered through one lump with a disfigured pattern on it.

_"It happened just like it was supposed to,"_ Grover was saying in a mournful voice. "_The prophecy, 'one shall be lost in the land without rain.'"_ My sister was gone. I cried out and suddenly Hestia was sitting next to me again; regarding me with concern. I shook my head as she opened her mouth; then bowed hastily, just in case she thought I was being rude.

"I can help," Hestia didn't seem offended, and took my arm. Her hands were warm and calming, like I'd just drunk a hot chocolate and was sitting back at Westover with Bianca talking me through my maths homework. All my fears suddenly seemed further away; like I just couldn't reach them through some fog. I shook the dream from my mind easily.

"Thank you, Lady Hestia," I bowed my head towards her and she smiled. Her brown eyes were warm as they held mine for a moment, letting me forget that my sister had even gone on a quest. I abruptly shivered as the wind started up, blowing cold air towards me.

"Go back to bed, Nico," Hestia's voice was warm, but commanding; not unlike Bianca's at eight o'clock in the evening. One plus side to her not being around was that I could stay up later. I got up, ready to head back to cabin eleven and my patch on the floor, but stopped before Hestia.

"Just so you know, Lady Hestia." I spoke through a haze of tranquillity. "I won't forget about you," she smiled at me again and nodded. I turned to leave and as I began to trudge back the way I had run I was sure I heard her mutter:

"That's what they all say,"

I snuggled back down into my warm sleeping bag and as my eyes began to close I promised myself that I would remember Hestia._ I won't forget,_ I thought as I drifted off. _I won't forget._

* * *

_This idea just wouldn't leave me alone, so in honor of my new hamster, Bianca, I decided to write it as a late Christmas gift to everyone who lloves Nico. (I seem to be going through a Nico phase at the moment.)_


	2. To Kill for Love and to Love to Kill

**_To Kill for Love and to Love to Kill:_**

_Destruction is a true sign of devotion._

_- Billy Corgan_

I stabbed half-heartedly at the skeleton, it crumbled to dust immediately and I flopped down on the granite floor. Minos sighed; as I determinedly looked straight at my sword and began fiddling with the hilt. The zombie warrior melted into the ground with a whooshing noise.

"My Lord," Minos bowed his head. I snapped my teeth angrily at the name but he didn't flinch. "Forgive me for saying, but this isn't good enough," that shattered my feigned calm.

"I know it isn't good enough!" I said angrily, throwing down my sword and glaring at the ghost. "But it's extremely difficult and tiring to use my powers-"

"Something I did warn you about," Minos agreed, nodding his pearly dome. I shot him an aggravated look and he fell silent.

"As I was saying before; it zaps my energy to summon these skeletons and then I have to fight them! I'm sorry, Minos, if sons of Hades could do this 'no problem' in your day; but I _CAN'T_!" I kicked my blade across the floor and it skittered out of sight. That wasn't very good thinking; but Minos would guide me to it at some point. Sure enough, the King of Crete was already motioning for me to follow him. The passage had changed, but I had learnt to trust Minos when it came to the maze and navigating. Whereas in the mortal world if you walk in a straight line out of a room and continued that straight line; it is not a normal occurrence for that room to be at the end of your straight line. Down here in the Labyrinth, I had clashed with Minos several times; insisting that due to some guy's rule on something, if I walked back the way I had come, I would end up where I had been before. I had been proven wrong more times than I cared to admit. (I wondered if refusing to accept help and being abnormally stubborn were Hades' children's traits or just me. I didn't really have very much to go on; me being the only reference and all.) Also, I sucked at Geography. Everything from grid references to global warming was just like useless, buzzing information in my demigod head. I mean, really; when am I ever going to have to be able to name the different tiger species? It's a tiger, if you walk into one you're going to probably not live to tell the tale, right? So what would be the point in spending your last few seconds counting the stripes or whatever? But I digress.

We walked, well, I walked; Minos floated, in silence for a while. I was pretty good with silence by then, it gave me time to think, I was about as far away from my ten-year-old self as I could have possibly been.

"My Lord," Minos began.

"Stop calling me that!" I said hotly, Minos nodded.

"Of course, Master." I remained silent that time. "What seems to be the problem?"

"The fact that you seem to think I have boundless amounts of energy and I can't do what you seem to think I can," I said testily. If Minos noticed that I wasn't in the mood to talk he didn't care.

"Master - Duck!" I immediately squatted into a crouch, I felt something fly over the top of my head, skimming the scalp and causing my hair to get a slight trim. It didn't really help; my hair was still in the way of my eyes and since I was not blessed with the ability to cut (just ask my old art teacher), I had just let it grow. I'd get a haircut soon; maybe one of my zombies could do it for me. I smiled at the thought of an un-dead military officer styling hair with some safety scissors. Minos continued:

"You're right, of course, before you I had never met a child of Hades that had not developed its powers. I once worked with a son of Hades like you, but he had already learnt the secrets of his powers. When I first saw you I couldn't believe it; a child of Hades in my domain, then I realised you had no control over your powers and you hadn't even realised who your Godly parent was." Minos motioned for me to press to the left wall; three arrows shot past me instantly almost taking out my avatar jacket.

"So you were expecting some kind of super-kid who could perfect everything straightaway," I muttered, unable to let the point go. Minos looked at me exasperatedly and I diverted my eyes. If I didn't look at the ghost I wouldn't feel guilty for putting words in his mouth.

"My Lord, that is not what I was trying to say," Minos was tolerant, I'd give him that. "I simply meant that I'm learning as you are, I'm only pushing you because I think you can do it; not to make you fail." It wasn't Minos' fault, but he was there, so I decided to take it out on him anyway.

"I _can't_ do it and I _am_ failing." I said. Minos stopped and pointed down. I picked up my sword, brushed it over carefully and slipped it into the black sheath at my hip. "I don't care if you think I can, because whatever sort of experiments you're carrying out aren't very much fun for me!"

"This isn't about fun, my Lord –"

"Stop calling me that!" I exploded; Minos bowed respectfully and motioned for me to follow him along a corridor branching to the left.

"Whatever you wish, my Liège," Minos looked at me closely; probably to check how close I was to exploding, before concluding that as long as my sword wasn't drawn he was safe. "And I don't _think_ you can do these things, I _know_ you can." I looked at him incredulously; here was a ghost from Ancient Greece quoting a modern motivational speech. My day was now officially weird. Minos shrugged his cloudy shoulders, "There was a cine-room down here for a while."

"A _cinema_," I corrected under my breath. I knew Minos had heard me, but he carried on talking as if he hadn't.

"If you think you are going to fail, then what is the use in trying?" He asked; I shrugged in an insolent way that would have resulted in detention back at Westover.

"It's no use asking me rhetorical questions. Anyway, you're the one with the answers apparently so stop dragging it out and just get to the point already!" Minos looked set to strangle me, clenching his opaque fists and gritting his teeth. Then he forced a smile, a very forced smile, and benignly resumed talking.

"My point, my Lord," I swear he calls me that just to annoy me! "Is that; you are perfectly capable to perform these tasks, but your low self-esteem stops you."

"I don't have 'low self-esteem!'" I voiced my opinions loudly, a roar echoed down the passageway. Minos and I froze simultaneously. The ghost rotated on the spot fixing me with a withering glare that I was all too happy to return.

"Well done, my Lord," he said sarcastically. "You've done a spectacular job of ruining our cover."

"Oh, shut-up." I said irritably, "Just find a new path and get me out of here." Minos opened his mouth and looked like he was about to explain in great detail once again, how the Labyrinth worked; but the sounds of scuttling claws and heavy breaths were already resounding down the hallway we were in and he decided to save his lecture for a later date when my life wasn't at stake.

"Turn around," he commanded. "Take the right fork and bring down the wall behind you." I was by this time running back the way we had come, was it me or were the walls closer together then they had been?

"Weren't you listening?" I yelled behind me as we made our hasty retreat. There was no point in subtlety now. "That whole conversation we were just having was me saying how I couldn't do it and now you're telling me to, _again_?"

"Blah, blah, blah. Yes, as young people say: whatever, my Lord," Minos said from behind me. "Turn right, yes. Now bring down the walls!"

"I can't!" I roared, carrying on sprinting in the darkness. As a son of Hades I can see pretty well in dark, so when I say something was dark; it was. "I can't! I can't!" I drew my sword, it glinted in the blackness. "I can't! I can't!" Minos was fluctuating alongside me, changing colours in the darkness. "I can't… I can't!" To my eternal embarrassment I felt tears start to form at the corners of my eyes and I blinked them away angrily. "_I CAN'T, I CAN'T, I -"_

There was a crashing noise behind me. I stopped shouting. Minos smiled at me smugly as I turned around to stare at the huge wall of black stone that I had created. "I can?" I breathed quietly, hardly able to believe what I was seeing.

"You can," Minos established. I stepped through him, he spluttered indignantly for a second before realising I wasn't paying him any attention. I reached out a hand; the wall was solid rock and black as midnight. "Just as I suspected; emotional stress can cause power release. It is the same with most demigods. From how you described your confrontation with _Jackson_," I scowled at the name and Minos gave a tiny '_humph'_ noise. "The lying scumbag," Minos added for good measure and I nodded in agreement. "After he told you about…" Minos broke off and I clenched my fists.

"Yes, Minos?" I asked as sweetly as I could when all I wanted to do was stab something: hard.

"The part about the un-dead warriors," Minos picked up from where he'd left off. "You told me how scared and angry you were -"

"I did _not_ 'tell' you," I interrupted him, "you helped yourself to my memories!"

"Details, my Lord, technicalities," Minos spread his arms bracingly. "Anyway, those raw emotions were what sparked your powers; so I just did my best to recreate that feeling and, breakthrough!" He held his hands up in a 'tada!' gesture, but I wasn't letting go that easily.

"You 'recreated that feeling'? I was being chased by a monster!" I waved my arms; emphasizing the point. Minos ducked clear of my sword that I hastily sheathed.

"My Liège," Minos began hesitantly.

"Ye-es?" I asked, turning my head. A bubbling feeling was boiling in my stomach: I didn't like it. Minos wrung his opaque hands nervously; the last time I had seen him this anxious was when… oh no…

"The monster… well it wasn't exactly…" Minos gulped as I fixed my most dangerous glare on him; the only time Minos ever lost composure was when he had done something he was sure I wouldn't like and if he thought I wouldn't like it (ghosts aren't the best at reading people, if you catch my drift), then it was pretty much an inevitability I wouldn't.

"Oh… _you didn't_!" I stomped a foot dramatically. Minos flinched:

"Please don't banish me! Have mercy!" He shrieked. I slammed my hands over my ears; a ghost scream is super high and super loud and super painful. It's, like, the highest noise that can operate on human frequency and it _bloody hurts_. Minos' scream went on and on, until all I could hear was echoing screeches spinning round and round in my head.

"Alright," I might have screamed it or I may have whispered it; my eardrums were a little worn out. Minos stopped screaming and knelt low.

"Thank you, Master. I only wish to serve you-" I cut off his grovelling speech.

"My ears…" Minos reached out and his cold, mist-like digits brushed my earlobes. His hands were so cold that they lulled the pain and Minos murmured some soothing words. The buzzing slowly began to fade and when I could hear normally again, Minos took his hands away from my head. I stared at him as I scrambled to my feet.

"Just a trick that I picked up on my travels," he said as a means of explanation. What 'travels'? He lived in the Underworld! Minos ignored my sceptical look, choosing instead to motion for me to open a door that had definitely not been there a second ago. I shoved open the entrance, expecting another passage way; instead I found myself walking into a large room, tiled with red patterned slates. The floor was soft and springy, lined with a silky brown material that looked and felt a lot like fur. Normally, Bianca would have complained about animal rights and hunting (which I thought was pretty ironic, considering she became a Hunter), but this time I was alone, so I allowed myself to sink down onto the comfortably spongy flooring and let my exhaustion overpower me.

Guess what? I had a demigod dream (oh joy of joys!) according to Minos they're meant to be 'oracular' and 'significant', I just think they're really, _really_ annoying.

In my dream I was standing beside a boy. He was taller and more muscular than me (although that wasn't saying much) and was sobbing into his hands. With hair longer than mine, I guessed that he'd been down here for quite a while. It was obvious as to where he was; there was only one place where a delta symbol would indicate an exit: the Labyrinth. The boy was stumbling violently, I winced as he missed the delta; wild eyes, puffy and red from tears scanned the room like a caged animal.

"String…" he was saying, over and over. "String, string, string…" I backed away, from the wild-eyed boy. "Mary!" He suddenly launched himself towards me. "I'm sorry, Mary!" Tears leaked from his eyes with such sorrow that I felt guilt begin to gnaw at my stomach, I had the easy way out. "Must find the string…" he went back to searching the floor, pushing his hands into cracks in the floorboards and right into corners. Suddenly he froze, like a rabbit caught in the head-lights and scrambled backwards, back pressed to the wall; fear danced in his eyes. "He's here, he's here…" he whimpered.

"Hello again, Christopher," said a voice, it sounded cruel and cold and… familiar? "How are you doing today? Any closer to escaping?" A harsh snicker echoed around the room.

"Must find string… must find string…" Christopher pressed himself to the wall and closed his eyes. My heart thudded painfully in my chest. Of course I recognized that voice; but where from? The scene faded out before I could begin to connect the dots. I was looking at a picture of a man, he was grinning and had a white scar across his face. He had blue eyes that were sparkling. He looked like someone who cared, someone who would help you. Minos appeared in his ghostly form and then to my astonishment; a blond girl curled around a book. A torch was lying next to her and I recognised her from somewhere... A voice interrupted my thoughts:

"You see young hero," it said. "Be careful who you trust," this voice sounded familiar too, but in a good way. I was like hot chocolate and honey and it made me feel happy, rather than as if I had bugs crawling over my skin. Like last time, I just couldn't remember whose it was. "Hero, look out for those who wish to kill you and those would love you; for they may not be as different as you think." A picture of Jackson and his friends the night they came to rescue Bianca and I filled my vision. They looked so powerful and so brave; I seemed to be the only person who could see what Jackson truly was: a lying scumbag, "to kill for love and to love to kill. Be careful, young hero."


End file.
